See Also

And she’s shown that all of that can be accomplished without abandoning the very femininity that makes her campaign quest historic.

She can laugh, charm, tear up and beam at the sight of her daughter on stage and not lose an ounce of credibility on substance.

These are profound accomplishments that risk being belittled by an eleventh-hour blame game.

“Once the atmosphere clears, I don’t see the image of a woman beaten down by sexism. I see a woman standing tall, demonstrating leadership and grit and fighting and breaking through,” says Ruth B. Mandel, director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University and former director of the institute’s Center for American Women and Politics.

To be sure, there were ugly moments along the way.

Some talk show hosts went over the line, injecting a sexist coarseness into the national debate. A Catholic priest launched into an anti-white-entitlement rant in a Chicago church that led to a succession of required apologies. The revival of the Clinton nutcrackers was nothing short of vulgar.

Geraldine Ferraro, one of the first to sound the sexism alarm, has asked Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center to conduct a study of the slights and insults that Clinton has endured to ensure there is some accountability for — and record of — them.

Kathleen Dolan, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin, agrees that sexism played a part in the campaign. “Most people know it is not OK to be a racist,” says Dolan. “The problem for Sen. Clinton is that sexism is still OK and it doesn’t raise the same kind of clear bright line.”

But Dolan and other analysts — male and female — don’t believe that’s what ultimately will cost her the nomination.